


What We Have Left

by witchybelle4u2



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Happy Ending, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I hate myself, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Reylo - Freeform, Romance, Sad with a Happy Ending, Sorry Not Sorry, Sweet, There I fixed it., alternative ending, what is WRONG with me?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24022360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchybelle4u2/pseuds/witchybelle4u2
Summary: Ben looked around the ruined Citadel in stunned disbelief. He couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few minutes, but those minutes had wrought utter destruction upon Palpatine’s hidden base. Stone pillars and grotesque statues had toppled, crushing the Sith spectators where they had stood. The monstrous Dark Throne was gone, obliterated in whatever blast had left scorch marks across the walls.And there, at the heart of the blast, a prone figure lay on the ground. A figure dressed in white that stood out like a beacon against the darkness around it. A figure Ben would recognize, even if he were struck blind.“Rey.”
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Kylo Ren/Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	What We Have Left

Muscles straining, Ben hoisted himself over the edge of the crevasse that had nearly claimed his life. Anyone unfamiliar with the ways of the Force might have called his sudden landing on a ledge a miracle. He winced as he struggled to find his feet, then promptly fell to his knees when pain shot up his leg.

It didn’t _feel_ like a miracle.

Ben looked around the ruined Citadel in stunned disbelief. He couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few minutes, but those minutes had wrought utter destruction upon Palpatine’s hidden base. Stone pillars and grotesque statues had toppled, crushing the Sith spectators where they had stood. The monstrous Dark Throne was gone, obliterated in whatever blast had left scorch marks across the walls.

And there, at the heart of the blast, a prone figure lay on the ground. A figure dressed in white that stood out like a beacon against the darkness around it. A figure Ben would recognize, even if he were struck blind.

“Rey.”

Ben fell, harder and faster than when Palpatine had tossed him into the pit. Terror rushed over him like the cold spray of a wild ocea; silence roared in his ears like a buffeting wind. Even as Ben told himself that his it was a lie, that Rey couldn’t be dead, he reached out through their bond and found...

...nothing.

Gone, she was gone.

“No.” It wasn’t a plea. It wasn’t denial. It was absolute conviction.

Everyone, everything good had been taken from Ben. He wouldn’t lose Rey too.

His mind flashed back to their battle on Endor. The searing pain of his own lightsaber slicing through his abdomen had been nothing to the pain of knowing Rey had put it there—or the pain of watching her struggle with the Dark side of the Force afterward. She’d overcome it quickly, so quickly Ben knew she would never really give in to it, and had knelt at his side, giving a tiny slice of her life to heal him. He hadn’t had time then to dwell on the process—and didn’t have time now.

There was no time to think, only time to act.

Ben rushed to her as fast as he could. Stumbling, falling, half-crawling at times, he made his tired, aching, broken body carry him to Rey’s side. He gathered her lifeless form to his chest. For the briefest of moments, he held her there as he fought back the tears that tried to blind him.

Grief tried to convince Ben that it was hopeless. That she was beyond saving. That he’d taken too long to climb up that wall. Too long to get to her. Hesitated too long to do what needed to be done.

 _No_.

Ben wouldn’t let himself believe that. If it had been too long, she wouldn’t be there. If Rey had really left him, her body would have returned to the Force. As long as she was there, in his arms, there was a chance. Taking a deep breath, Ben placed his hand over Rey’s limp one where it had fallen across her stomach. He closed his eyes, gathered the Force around him, summoned his own lifeforce, and pushed.

The moment seemed to last forever. Doubt tried to descend upon Ben, but he shoved it aside impatiently. Stubbornly. It would work. It would work because it _had_ to work...

He felt the flash of life pulse through the hand beneath his a heartbeat before he heard Rey’s quick gasp. Relief made tears sting his eyes. He blinked them away. He couldn’t afford to stop the transfer, not until it was complete. Ben knew it would mean the death of him, but that didn’t matter. Not if it meant she would live. Rey—once his nemesis, now his sole reason for... _everything_.

Rey’s palm turned up and her fingers linked with his. She smiled at him. It was every dream Ben had never known he had, all come true at once.

 _Well,_ Ben thought, _if I have to go, at least I can take this moment with me._

He returned her smile, tightening his hold on her hand. Energy continued to flow between their bodies. It took Rey a moment to realize what was happening. When she did, she tried to stop him. Of _course,_ she did. Rey would give her life for anyone, without a moment’s hesitation—but would never let anyone do the same for her. Ben had never understood that kind of sacrifice.

Until now.

“Ben.” Her voice, choked with equal parts wonder and fear, was like a dying man’s prayer. Soft as a whisper, she pleaded with him. “Ben, _no_.”

Tears streamed freely down his face in a cascade of lost possibilities, but Ben didn’t stop. He wouldn’t let what he heard (or _thought_ he heard) in Rey’s voice sway him. For once in his life, he would do the right thing.

Except that he hadn’t taken Rey’s incredible strength (or stubbornness) into account.

“No,” she said more forcefully, pushing herself into a seated position with her free hand. Then, Rey pushed back.

It took every ounce of Ben’s dwindling strength to stop her. “Rey, stop,” he begged. “You have to stop. You have to live.”

How could he make her see why she had to survive? How could he make her understand that it wouldn’t matter that he lived, if she was gone? Without Rey, Ben wouldn’t be a vessel for the Light, or a tool of the Dark. He wouldn’t be _anything_. It had taken him his whole to find something worth living for.

Or dying for.

“And how do you think _I_ feel?” Rey asked. Her eyes burned with emotion and a muscle ticked in her jaw.

_Of course._

Keeping Rey from returning every ounce of life he’d loaned her took all of Ben’s concentration and left nothing to keep her from invading his thoughts. Not that it mattered; he had no desire to keep anything from her. Not anymore. Everything he had was hers. Even his life.

Especially that.

“I won’t let you do it,” she told him in a voice like steel. “I won’t trade your life for mine.”

Energy shimmered in the space between them, like it had that day in Snoke’s throne room. The Force thrummed wildly between them again. Now, though, unlike then, they fought not to end one another’s lives, but to save them. And, once again, they were too evenly matched for either to win.

 _My life is a small price to pay,_ Ben told her through their bond. No price was too small to pay to know Rey was still alive, still taking on the whole damned universe with that fighting spirit of hers. He filled his mind with Rey: her strength; her resolve; her honesty; her utter and complete faith in people (like him) who didn’t deserve it... and that smile. That smile that dazzled him every time she graced him with it.

How could the universe lose that?

He felt rather than heard Rey’s sigh. The next moment, his mind was filled with an image of... him.

As Rey saw him.

Ben Solo was a creature of Light wrapped in a hardened shell of borrowed Dark. The Dark had been piled on so thickly, for so long, by so many people that it was who he thought he was. But that shell had cracked during the time they had known each other. The real Ben shone through the cracks. One day, the Dark would fall away entirely and Ben—the _real_ Ben—would finally be free.

Rey wanted to be there for that.

_But... why?_

She could have laughed out loud, if keeping Ben from giving her his entire lifeforce hadn’t taken every ounce of energy she possessed. His mental voice sounded like that of a runaway child, nearly as frightened of being found as of being alone. For everything that he had done under the guise of Kylo Ren—all the atrocities, the death, and destruction—Ben was so innocent it was unreal.

 _I can’t believe I have to say it after everything we’ve been through,_ she told him. The truth she’d tried so hard to hide came so easily to the surface, connected as they were. _I love you, Ben Solo._

The Force between them waivered as a look of sheer wonder spread across Ben’s face. For a moment, Rey thought he would stop fighting altogether but, even as a grin so brilliant it filled every shadowy part of her soul spread across his face, Ben’s efforts redoubled.

Rey gasped, struggling under the sudden surge in the Force.

_What are you doing?_

Still beaming, Ben replied, _I never imagined hearing those words from you. My life is complete. I don’t need anything else._

Panic raced through Rey like an out of control speeder. She pushed back hard as she scrambled to stop Ben but his determination to save her was too great. The flow of lifeforce started to slip in her direction. She couldn’t hold him back much longer…

Desperation made Rey act without thinking. She pulled their joined hands toward her chest until their faces were just a breath apart and grabbed a handful of Ben’s torn, dirty sweater with her free hand.

“Wanna bet?”

Then, she did what she had longed to do from the moment their hands first touched in that hut on Ahch-to. She kissed him.

Rey was nearly as surprised by her boldness as Ben was. She was even more surprised when he kissed her back. A thrill ran through her, echoed by a rush of joy from Ben. The Force shivered between them for a heartbeat before dropping away. Like so many of their battles, they had both lost.

And won.

Her hands, so certain when they dissembled and rebuilt machinery, trembled as they traveled up to tangle in Ben’s thick waves. He groaned in response and deepened the kiss. Though they were each as inexperienced as the other, their bodies knew exactly what to do, now that they had finally ( _finally_ ) given in to the passion that had driven them for so many long months.

It took so little, just the twist of Ben’s hips, and Rey was beneath him. Her legs came up automatically to trap him in place. The way he moved against her said he didn’t mind being trapped. Not one bit.

“Rey,” he breathed against her lips. “My Rey.” It was an invocation. A prayer of thanks to whatever power that had brought them together. To the goddess beneath him.

Ben pressed his forehead to Rey’s and slowly opened his eyes. She blinked up at him, lost in the unfiltered love she found in his gaze. Once so tortured, his dark eyes were full of wonder out of control—a look Rey knew she shared. There was something she was supposed to say... a point she was trying to make... what was it again?

Oh, yeah...

“How about now?”

“Mmm?” Ben nuzzled her throat, less interested in talking than exploring her body.

Truth be told, Rey was losing interest in talking herself. The more flesh his questing lips found, the less interested she became.

_Focus!_

She nudged him back far enough to make him look at her. “How about now?” she repeated.

A line appeared between Ben’s brows as he considered her words. “Now... what?”

Rey smiled. She knew mischief danced in her eyes and didn’t bother trying to hide it. “Is your life complete? Is there anything else you... need?”

A low rumble of desire sounded deep in his chest as Ben showed Rey exactly what he desired.

The galaxy celebrated. Many galaxies celebrated the fall of the Sith. All across known space, word spread of their victory. Impromptu celebrations sprang up in places that had long been in need of a reason to celebrate. The Order was, at long last, defeated.

On Exegol (tactfully left there by an old Resistance general who had a good idea of what it meant when a search for life signs revealed two so close together,) Ben trailed one long finger down Rey’s slim back.

“You shouldn’t have stopped me,” he mused aloud. His voice was heavier than it should have been at such a happy time. A persistent thought nagged at him, kept him from losing himself in the moment.

Rey’s laugh was wicked. “Didn’t think I did,” she murmured against his chest. She didn’t share his regret.

Ben poked her side playfully, but his expression was serious as he stared down at her. Deadly serious.

“You should have taken my energy,” he told Rey. “Between Palpatine and...” he waved a hand at the devestation around them “...whatever you did to cause this, you lost too much.”

Rey didn’t look up. “You gave too much.”

They were silent a moment, each considering what it all meant, though they both knew.

“It isn’t enough, not for a Jedi. Not for a full life.”

Rey sighed, then pushed herself up on one elbow to meet Ben’s concerned gaze. “I have what you have. Whatever time we have left, however short,” she said with absolute conviction, “we have together.”

 _Will it be enough?_ Ben wondered as Rey nestled back into his embrace. No. Forever wouldn’t be enough time with her—but he had to stop thinking like the Sith he always tried to be and start thinking like the Jedi he had always been.

It would be enough. They would _make it_ enough. Whatever time he had with Rey, with their shared lifeforce, he would cherish it. Ben made Rey a silent promise. He would take every stolen second they had left. And, when the time came for them to move on to whatever came next, they would do _that_ together too.

Through the bond they shared, Ben felt Rey’s sleepy, contended agreement.


End file.
